Talks on Talking

Grenville KleiserProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 160K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Talks on Talking by Grenville KleiserAuthor: Kleiser, Grenville, 1868-1953,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Jan 7, 2006

Editor's review

Grenville Kleiser's Talks on Talking is an early practical guide to the art of speaking, belonging to the early twentieth-century tradition of training in public speaking and expression. The book discusses articulation, intonation, word choice, listening, and the essentials of speaking in public; its tone is direct, its points are clearly itemized, and it bears the distinct mark of the rhetorical education of its time. Its value lies not in cutting-edge theory but in presenting a plain, workable framework for training expression: treating speaking as a skill that can be broken down, practiced, and improved. For today's readers who want to improve their expression but are weary of popular talking points, this book offers a more fundamental and more honest perspective. When reading, it is best to take its principles rather than copy its example sentences, since some of its contexts now seem dated.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Professionals who want to systematically improve their spoken expression and public speaking skills
Language enthusiasts interested in the early twentieth-century tradition of speech education
Teachers and trainers who need a concise framework for expression training
English-language readers who enjoy short essays and chapter-by-chapter reading

Not a good fit for

Professional readers expecting modern communication psychology or empirical research
People who need ready-made talking-point templates and scenario scripts
Beginners who find English reading difficult and would prefer a Chinese translation

Reading tips

After reading each chapter, choose one point and deliberately practice it in daily conversation for a week.
Read the book's example passages aloud to experience the actual differences in tone, pause, and stress.
Jot down places that do not fit contemporary communication scenarios, as material for comparative reflection.
It can be used as short morning reading, one chapter at a time, rather than read through all at once.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How is this book different from modern bestselling books on communication?

It does not rely on psychological experiments or business cases; instead, it starts from the tradition of rhetoric and speech training and emphasizes basic skills such as articulation, intonation, and word choice. Its content is plainer and more practice-oriented, and it lacks scenario analysis in a modern context, but its basic principles are still worth consulting.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The wording is generally plain and the sentences are not long; it is popular early twentieth-century English that non-native readers can finish with the help of a dictionary. Some example sentences and allusions carry the flavor of their time and may require extra lookup for understanding, but this does not prevent grasping the main points.

Are the book's suggestions still applicable today?

Core principles such as clear articulation, controlled pace, saying something substantive, and listening carefully are not outdated. But some examples concerning occasion etiquette and wording bear obvious marks of their time; readers should extract the principles and adjust them to present-day scenarios rather than mechanically copying them.

Comments

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About the author

Grenville Kleiser Author · Canadian-American · 1868–1953

Grenville Kleiser (1868–1953) was a Canadian-born American author and elocution teacher who taught public speaking at Yale Divinity School. Public information about his life is limited, and many biographical details remain unknown, yet he wrote prolifically, producing more than thirty books on public speaking, rhetoric, and self-improvement. Five of his works are included here: Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, The Training of a Public Speaker, Talks on Talking, Model Speeches for Practise, and Successful Methods of Public Speaking. These are largely practical guides built around lists, examples, and exercises, written in plain and workmanlike prose and focused on usability for ordinary readers seeking to improve their spoken and written expression; they circulated widely in twentieth-century English-language speech education.